An impressionable, slightly aimless man meets up with a very focused, and very married woman. An illicit affair develops, but then an even darker plan takes root — what if, you know, something happened to hubby?

And the two make it happen — only to discover that the crime that now binds them is also tearing them apart.

And the new "In Secret" goes back to that story's roots, not only in 19th-century France, but a time when a man truly established a woman's identity and only property could bring any kind of independence.

It's a familiar story (Chan-wook Park's typically, deliberately outré "Thirst" turned it into a vampire story starring a scandalous priest) yet it's so often freely adapted that seeing it done with some fidelity is a nice reminder of how modern and daring Zola was.

This version was originally named "Therese" (and originally supposed to come out last year) and the title change seems to reflect something more than commercial aspects: here, Therese Raquin is no longer the star of her own story. It's her mother-in-law.

That may be because she's played by the formidable Jessica Lange, who imbues Madame Raquin — she has no first name in the tale — with a striking singleness of purpose. She is, simply, devoted to her invalid son — so much so that she will push her ward, Therese, into marrying him (and, of course, then join them in their new home).

Yet perhaps because she is so focused on her child, Madame Raquin is oblivious to the real dangers taking shape.

Lange is terrific in the part — even more so when, in the second half of the story, a stroke leaves her nearly immobile, and she's forced to act with her eyes alone. But sometimes it feels as if she's acting alone, too.

It's true that both her son (Tom Felton, running fast from his "Harry Potter" days as Draco) and his wife's lover (Oscar Isaac) are meant to be easily led characters, yet they come across as colorless, too. They don't really capture our interest.

And while Elizabeth Olsen continues to be a striking young actress — with luminous skin and enormous eyes full of secrets — she never quite manages to express how imprisoned Therese feels, or how haunted she becomes once the murderous deed is done.

The film has its moments. The street scenes (mostly done in Serbia) re-create, if not Paris, then a convincingly filthy old Europe; there is a particularly naughty, if slightly silly, moment when Therese is forced to hide her lover literally under her petticoats.

But apart from that farcical eroticism, Olsen and Isaac never really create the kind of amour fou that a story like this depends on, let alone the self-loathing guilt that their crime is supposed to engender. They pass through its melodrama without ever really being part of it, and when the film ends, they're not the people who linger in our minds.